Heritage and Stabilisation Fund at US$5.76m

THE Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) stood at US$5,7631 million at the end of June 30.

This information was contained in the HSF quarterly investment report for April-June 2024, which was released by the Finance Ministry on October 15.

The report said this figure was US$136.6 million lower than the previous quarter's closing value of US$5,898 million.

The report said during the April-June quarter, US$209.6 million was withdrawn from the HSF, in accordance with section 15 of the HSF Act, with respect to fiscal 2023.

The report said assets within the fund's US short-duration fixed-income mandate were liquidated to meet this obligation.

For the quarter ended June 30, the HSF's investment portfolio returned 1.38 per cent and its benchmark increased by 0.77 per cent.

The report said strong US equity market gains and the HSF's relatively higher allocation to the US core domestic equity mandate helped to drive its performance.

This information supported comments Finance Minister Colm Imbert made in his budget presentation in the House of Representatives on September 30.

Imbert said then, "Our gross official reserves stand at US$5.5 billion, or 7.7 months of import cover, and the HSF stands at an impressive US$6.1 billion, despite substantial withdrawals during the covid19 period and afterwards, totalling more than US$1 billion, confirming the prudent management of the fund."

Despite all the economic shocks that TT has endured, he said, "The value of the HSF is higher now than it was when we assumed office in September 2015, and our foreign reserves remain more than adequate."

Imbert said this was the case despite "constant demands for devaluation of the TT dollar and unfounded predictions of economic collapse, which, to the dismay of our detractors, did not and will not occur under this administration."